Author: Cole Bubenik

Traditional ISS programs are founded on the principle that punishing students results in decreased behavior. SMART ISS is a program that flips that script; focusing instead on making ISS programs active and restorative rather than simply punitive. Here are three ways you can switch what your ISS program does to make sure it’s SMART.

The traditional In School Suspension model is broken and yet most schools still use it. Schools across Texas and throughout the country practice the traditional, punitive, method of ISS. In this model, students get in trouble and are sent to a room on campus as punishment. They might complete homework or do assignments, but the main point is they’re separated from their peers. The idea is that, by forcing students to think about what they’ve done, they won’t do it again. Of course, that logic doesn’t always follow through. Here are three reasons why the traditional ISS method doesn’t work.

Your school or campus might already use conferences to deal with behavior issues, but restorative conferences are a bit different. In restorative conferences, victims, offenders, and their friends and family take an active role in resolving any conflicts.

A restorative conference is an example of restorative discipline. You should use restorative practices when you wish to repair harm done and reestablish relationships within your school as opposed to strictly punishing students. During a conference, your students get a chance to deal with the consequences of their wrongdoing and decide how to best repair and harms caused together.

You’ve likely heard the term “restorative discipline” used on your campus before. It’s a philosophy that’s been getting a lot of attention lately in the education world. But, despite the term’s growing popularity, you might not know what restorative discipline really is.

Restorative discipline is just one branch of the larger restorative practices tree. The international Institute of Restorative Practices defines restorative practices as, “social science that studies how to build social capital and achieve social discipline through participatory learning and decision-making.” You might be confused by this definition, but it simply means that restorative practices focus on repairing social harm by involving the community.

In “Teach Like a Pirate” Dave Burgess acknowledges two questions he uses during his seminars to get participants thinking about their lessons. The two questions are created to help his participants confront the, often harsh, realities of their daily lesson delivery. They’re also designed to get participants thinking about what their expectations or standards are for classroom possibilities.

Too often, we make instruction and classroom management separate issues. If you’ve worked in a classroom before, you know this isn’t the reality. Great instruction requires great classroom management and great classroom management requires great instruction. The two work together, in harmony, not opposition.

That’s why you should teach both instruction and classroom management together. We do this on our team, by working with the Strategic Instruction team here at Region 13. We collaborate to create classroom systems which take both classroom management, and instruction, into account. Here are three reasons we think you should bundle instruction and management together

Today our specialist, Monica Kurtz gives us her thoughts on trauma and the importance of teaching Social Emotional Learning in our schools.

School shootings. Outrage. Fear. Helplessness. My newsfeed is filled with almost daily reports of another shooting, more victims. More death. Working in a school, particularly in behavior, I have worked with students that scare me. I can envision a dark future that involves them, weapons and widespread destruction. How do we combat that darkness? I’m not the only person asking that question.

When we talk aboutclassroom management, we often lean on theory but forget the practical steps you can take. One of the best things you can do for your classroom, is learn how to physically set up your classroom for success. We asked Angela Isenberg to give us a few tips on how to properly set up your physical space to boost classroom management.

One of the most challenging tasks for teachers is figuring out how to foster and manage independent work in the classroom. We asked education specialist, Angela Isenberg, to give us some of her quick tips for managing independent work and here’s what she gave us.

Plenty of schools use behavior charts to track their students’ behavior. Behavior charts come in all shapes and sizes and are used primarily to motivate students to behave better while in class. At the core, the idea seems right: by tracking our students’ reactions throughout the day we encourage them to make better choices. But like many things, the idea works better than its practical applications.

Behavior charts can reinforce students who are already sociable and well behaved, but negatively affect those students who aren’t. Using charts in your classroom can affect students with a history of trauma, shame your students, and enforce strict obedience instead of actual change. Here are three big reasons why behavior charts aren’t effective.